DENVER -- U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch grew up in Colorado. He spent his formative years as a student at Christ The King Catholic School in Denver.

He was known as a bright student and as someone teachers predicted would grow up to do great things.

"To think of that blows my mind, that I knew this kid when he was 12 years old," said childhood friend David Kail.

Kail said his mother and Gorsuch's mom shared a carpool for school and the families lived one block apart.

The Gorsuch family was and is an influential one in Colorado. Gorsuch's mom, the late Anne Gorsuch Burford, was a trailblazer, serving as the first female secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Ronald Reagan.

A former teacher of Gorsuch described to Kail what the high court's nominee was like as a young student.

"I don't know how many middle-schoolers liked to talk about government and politics and stuff when they're 12 or 13 years old, but apparently he really did," Kail said.

Of all the things Kail remembers about Gorsuch, there was something about his sense of style at a young age that sticks out.

"He was maybe the only kid in school who walked around in cowboy boots," Kail said.

Gorsuch will need Senate approval before being able to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.